Milwaukee

November 15: Teaching a workshop and reading with Noah Eli Gordon at Woodland Pattern Book Center, 720 East Locust Street, Milwaukee, WI.

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How can I possibly describe to you how wonderful Woodland Pattern is? I had heard from many quarters it was like no other poetry organization, and two of the readings (in Lawrence, KS and Appleton, WI) were organized by people with long associations with Woodland Pattern who rely on the place to bring a certain sort of interesting poet to the Midwest, but it wasn’t quite possible for me to imagine the place until I got there (at which point it’s no longer imagining, of course). The outside has a lovely post-Didion 70s vibe:



Look at this great political mural on the building’s façade. Reminded me of the Y back in Concord, NH where I grew up—or the great place my mom used to take me to do pottery and drawing:



I guess the whole place brought me back—not only to my own semi-hippie childhood, but also to the semi-hippie experimental poetics of the 70s. Whereas a lot of the poetry I deal in (in Brooklyn, at Fence, in my own life) and write might be called “indie”—be aligned with bands like Radiohead or Deathcab and some of the newer experimentally figurative artists like Paul Paddock, much of the poetry and “vibe” at Woodland Pattern would be aligned with Dylan and the Abstract Expressionists… On the shelves, you could see LANGUAGE and New York School and Beat poetries perfectly happily giving way to New Lyric, New Narrative (I’m going to start a school called “Old Lyric and Narrative Fuck You”), Elliptical, fourth and fifth generation New York School, and other newer work by emerging writers. In other words, the place, while certainly a sort of bastion of experimental and avant-guardist writings, was also wonderfully open-seeming—open-minded, open-vibed. I could have hung out there all day… browsing, hanging out with the immensely enthusiastic and kind staff… Chuck Stebelton, who had invited me, was one of the best hosts on the trip so far, taking me and my co-reader, Noah Eli Gordon, out to a great place called the Comet Café for dinner, drinking with us late into the night at a fantastic Milwaukee bar, then reconvening with us in the morning for a tremendous brunch, where we talked for hours about pretty much every poet (experimental or no) under the sun. It didn’t hurt that Noah, like Chuck, has read every book by every poet, like, ever written.

Here we are (including Faith—from the Appleton episode of this blog) at the Comet before the reading:



Chuck introducing (the art in the background is by Jane Dalrymple Hollo, who had recently been there with Anselm):



John Koethe, who introduced Noah:



Noah:



More art:



Faith, who introduced me:



Anne, who is one of the owners of Woodland Pattern. A very special person, so sweet and so community-minded. Lovely:



Two women who were in the lyric memoir workshop I had run earlier in the day—the one on the right also works in the store. She was so helpful—really positive and great to be around:



Comet in the morning, too; great brunch there, if you’re ever in Milwaukee (Williamsburg: eat your heart out):



I wish there were more places like Woodland Pattern on this earth. I mean, it would be great if there were a place like that in New York somewhere (there used to be a place sort of like Woodland in the Bay Area back in the 90s—the SPD storefront—but that closed). There is nothing like browsing through books for hours in a real store with real people who care and can tell you what’s happening.